Palouse Falls State Park

Palouse Falls

There are ten campsites here with, Picnic tables, Fire pits, Water and Pit tolets We had a few fellow campers but not many. There is a train track one one side of the park, But it is down in a canyon and was not a problem. We stayed here four days and had a great time. There are lots of unimproved trails to explore the falls and canyon.This park is an oasis in the desert. Between the trees and the river canyon there were a lot of birds. We also saw a four deer down in the canyon and a neutria or maybe a beaver. The following is a list of Birds that I was able to identify.

• House Finch, American Goldfinch
• American Robin, Brewers Blackbird, Bullocks Oriole
• Cliff Swallow, Western Medowlark, Black Capped Chickadee
• White Thorted Swift, Common Nitehawk
• Commoon Tern, American crow
• American Kestral, Great Blue Heron
• unidentified lagre raptor

The Indian legend of Palouse Falls

Four giant bothers and their giant sister once lived not far from the Palouse River. They were proud of how they looked, and were especially proud of their hair. They kept it oiled and shinny from beaver’s tails.

One time they ran out of oil and wondered where they could get some. “There is a big beaver in the Palouse River”, the Wolf people told the giants. “Why don’t you get some from him?”

So the four giants brothers looked for the big Beaver. They found him in the river, up above where the falls are now. At that time there were no falls; the water ran smoothly and calmly all the way to the Snake River.

One of the giant brothers wounded the Beaver with his spear. Beaver started down the river as fast as he could run, the four giants chasing him. At the first bend in the river, they caught up with him and the second brother speared him.

But Beaver kept on going. Angrily, he turned to the left, away from the river, and made a new and deep canyon. Again the brothers caught up with him and the third brother spread him. Beaver shook the spear off and plunged back into the river. As he turned south towards the Snake River, he shook his tail very hard five times. Thus he made the five little falls in that place.

There the fourth brother speared him, but Beaver kept on. He plowed out a deep canyon ahead of the brothers, until they caught up with him and fought with him. In the struggle, Beaver made the rapids you can see there today and turned the canyon sharply to the left.

Again the Beaver rushed on down towards the Snake River. At the next bend in the Palouse he was speared the fifth time. He turned on the fourth brother and fought them in the biggest fight of all.There the Beaver tore out a big canyon.The river came over the cliff in a big rush and formed the Palouse Falls. The marks of Beaver’s claws can still be seen all the way along the canyon walls, even to this day.

But again Beaver escaped from the giants. Soon he reached the Snake River and plunged downstream, sure now that he was free. Perhaps he would have been free if it hadn’t been for Coyote. Coyote was watching the chase from the hills on the south side of the river.

When Coyote saw Beaver escaping, he stood with one foot on the short grass and one foot on the long grass and sang his song of power. His power song made Beaver turn around and go back up the Snake River to the mouth of the Palouse. There the four giant brothers speared him again and killed him.

You can see Beaver’s heart today. It’s the big round rock on the west side of the Palouse River where that river joins the Snake.

We came back in the fall and the weather was great. The falls were smaller than they were in the spring. We had good sky for the telescopes the first night. The second evening we had a great sunset.

webmasterMikeLast update at 8-14-2004